Entertainment

White House: Yes, We're Still Anti-SOPA (But Pro-ACTA)

A White House annual report on Intellectual Property reaffirmed President Obama's stance on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA): American intellectual property needs to be protected, but SOPA was too broad a bill.

This new report indicates that the White House is willing to support new intellectual property legislation in Congress, but it must meet the administration's goal of preserving an open Internet.

"Online piracy is a serious problem ... The Administration is interested in working with Congress to ensure that these issues are addressed in a manner that takes into account the challenges and opportunities of the Internet and that is consistent with the Administration’s goals and public policy principles," reads the report from the office of Victoria Espinel, the U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator.

However, the administration also reaffirmed its support for the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA.

"ACTA represents a considerable improvement in international trade norms for effectively com­bating the global proliferation of commercial-scale counterfeiting and piracy in the 21st Century," reads the report.

In mid-January, the Obama administration announced it wouldn't be supporting SOPA in a response to an online We the People petition. Back then, Obama's team said it would not support "legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

The White House also used the report to fire a warning shot at state-sponsored digital intellectual property theft — a volley aimed mostly at China. The country was mentioned 223 times throughout the document and got its own chapter, entitled "Administration's Focus on China."

The report warned that economic espionage — wherein a country or a foreign-owned business steals intellectual property for its own benefit — "represents a significant cost to victim companies and threaten the economic security of the U.S."

According to the White House, the Department of Justice and the FBI saw a 29% increase in economic espionage between 2010 and 2011. China has long been considered a hotbed of such intellectual property theft.

It wasn't all doom-and-gloom, though: the report also highlighted several of the Obama administration's self-declared successes against intellectual property theft, including:

1. A voluntary agreement between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and content providers wherein ISPs alert movie and music studios of infringement on peer-to-peer networks.2. An agreement between credit card and web companies to fight online pharmacies illegally selling counterfeit drugs.3. U.S. law enforcement's increased efforts to find and prosecute counterfeiters.

According to the report, of the 270 websites seized by DOJ in 2011, 248 were distributing counterfeit goods and 22 were distributing copyrighted content.

President Obama previously called intellectual property one of America's greatest exports during a Google+ Hangout, but added that protecting it must be done “in a way that’s consistent with Internet freedom."

SOPA stalled in Congress after thousands in the tech community rallied in opposition to the bill. On Jan. 18, popular websites including Reddit and Wikipedia went offline for the day to protest the bill, while anti-SOPA rallies were held in New York and elsewhere. Over the course of the day, 2.4 million people tweeted about SOPA, some Congressional websites were overloaded with traffic and seven million people signed Google's anti-SOPA petition.

BONUS: SOPA and PIPA: How Did We Get Here?

SOPA And PIPA: A Timeline Of How We Got Here

May 12: PIPA introduced

The PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011), better known as PIPA was introduced into the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The act’s goals were described by its sponsors as protecting intellectual property and punishing foreign sites who post copyrighted material. If a site was discovered doing so, the U.S. attorney general could order U.S. based Internet service providers, search engines, payment systems and advertising networks to suspend doing business with the website.

Nov. 15: Tech Giants Weigh In

Twelve tech giants, including Google, Facebook and LinkedIn, delivered a letter of protest to the sponsors of the SOPA and PIPA legislation, calling the bill dangerous to American innovation and cybersecurity, but also acknowledged that digital piracy is a real problem.

Nov. 16: Tumblr, Mozilla, Others Post Anti-SOPA Messages

Tumblr, Mozilla and Reddit censored their content in one the first wide-scale protests of SOPA. The sites claimed the bill strengthens the U.S. Justice Department’s power to go after websites that host disputed copyright material and could make sites such as YouTube and Tumblr that host such user-generated content liable for copyright violations. Tumblr would only remove the black bars over posts if users agreed to call their representatives and protest SOPA. Reddit and Mozilla also put black bars over their logos in protest.

Dec. 15: House Meets

The House holds public hearings to discuss SOPA that were broadcast on C-SPAN and streamed online. Both pro- and anti-SOPA groups rallied that day with public messages regarding the bill. This message from the MPAA ran in the Washington Post. After a two-day debate, discussions were then delayed until Dec. 21, then delayed again until after holiday recess.

Dec. 29: GoDaddy Dump Day

Reddit declared Dec. 29 “Dump GoDaddy Day” after the domain hosting service declared they supported the legislation. Although GoDaddy quickly reversed its position, it says it lost more than 20,000 accounts because of the boycott.

Jan. 10: Reddit Announces Blackout

Reddit announced they would go black on Jan. 18, as a day to protest against SOPA/PIPA. Although they were the first to the call to action, they were quickly joined by other web companies, most notably Wikipedia, who vowed to go dark for the whole day.

Jan. 13: DNS Blocking Dropped

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who wrote the SOPA bill, announced he would remove the controversial section of the bill that would give copyright holders and the federal government the right to remove infringing websites from the DNS (Domain Name System). DNS works as a sort of “phone book” for the Internet. When a user types a URL into a browser, DNS helps the users’ computer find and speak with the correct server hosting the content the user wants to access. If a website is taken off the DNS system, it becomes more difficult for the average Internet user to arrive at that site, but savvy Internet users might still be able to access blocked sites.

Jan. 14: White House Responds

In a blog post responding to a petition posted on the White House’s website, the Obama Administration clearly laid out what it would – and would not – support in any new legislation designed to combat online piracy.

“While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response,” said the note, “we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

Jan. 17: Lamar Smith Announces More Rewrites

The architect of SOPA, Rep. Lamar Smith, scheduled a markup session next month in which the bill might be altered. In a markup session, a bill is opened to members of the House Judicial Committee for debate, amendments and other changes. The House will not be taking a final vote on SOPA.

Jan 18: A Day of Protest

Websites pledged to go dark in protest, and the effects were drastic. Wikipedia said 162 million people viewed its blackout page, 7 million people signed Google's petition linked on its homepage, and 4 million SOPA related tweets were sent out.

Jan. 20: SOPA Killed

Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, said that he is pulling the bill “until there is wider agreement on a solution."

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